An Apple A Day Keeps the Zeros Away
by LittleAlbatross
Summary: After a journey in the woods threatens DG's life, Cain finds a new reason to love the forbidden fruit.


They'd been searching for Zero for what seemed like weeks

They'd been searching for Zero for what seemed like an eternity. It'd only taken a few days to find the emerald and free her sister from the evil witch, and D.G. could not for the life of her figure out why it was so hard to locate a rebel with more enemies than the IRS. Even with the help of the Unwanted and the Papay, they'd failed to locate the missing longcoat who'd gone vigilante.

"Cain, tell me again why you let him out of the suit in the first place?" D.G. whined to the man walking next to her.

"Because Kiddo, you haven't got anything if you don't have heart…I don't remember who taught me that…" the Tinman next to her replied, while keeping a keen eye on the forest and a steady hand on his pistol.

"I'm not a kid!" she pouted while grabbing her stomach as it growled in protest to the fact they hadn't eaten for over 10 hours, "and can we PLEASE eat something soon? It's not like we can't manage to get something, I am, after all, a princess," she reminded him.

His only response was to roll his eyes at her, to which she responded by sticking out her tongue in the most juvenile manner a woman of 20 annuals could manage.

"Gli-Ambrose would have fed me."

"_Glitch_ would have also gotten you killed several times by now and you wouldn't have needed to be fed. Maybe I should take a lesson from him," he replied; for which he earned a sharp elbow to the ribs that knocked the air out of him. She was stronger than he thought.

"I was thinking you should take a lesson from Jeb…" she mumbled under her breath.

Cain wasn't quite sure what she could mean by that. Maybe she expected him to spoil her like his son did. From the moment they'd been formally introduced, Jeb had done everything he could do to stay by DG's side. He was besotted, and Cain found it extremely annoying that every moment he was able to spend with his long lost son was filled with talk of the careless brunette. He didn't like the fact his son was so smitten by her. It made him uncomfortable for some reason he couldn't quite pinpoint.

It was about 3 in the afternoon and they'd been walking since dawn. Cain could see that DG really did look pretty beat. He hadn't actually thought about the fact that not everyone had spent years trapped in a tin suit, although the number of people who had was rising at a surprisingly large rate, and weren't as resilient as he, and now he felt a bit ashamed for not noticing before. Of course he could always blame her, since this was the first she'd brought it up.

Cain was busy contemplating whose fault it really was that DG had been forced to go without food for so long when she tripped over a rock in their path and started to fall. Instinctively, Cain reached out to grab her, and also instinctively she pulled him into the fall with her. Unfortunately, they'd been walking on the ridge of a good sized hill that fell into a creek below.

After falling down the hill for about 45 seconds and introducing his body, and hers, though he had his arms wrapped tightly around her, to all sorts of rocks and fallen branches, they finally landed in the creek below. He was lucky enough to land on the bottom, in the water that was shockingly cold for July.

It took him a moment of panicking before he realized that the dark haired girl lying on top of him with her head buried in his chest and shaking wasn't crying, but laughing-- quite loudly actually. He relaxed his neck from its craned position and rolled his eyes before shoving her off of him into the cold water.

"Hey!" she protested before splashing him on the dry spots her body had protected from getting wet. She started to sit up, when he decided it was time to get even.

He quickly sat up and leaned over her, trapping her down with his arms.

"Oh no you don't, Kiddo," he said, splashing her in the face with his large hands, causing more damage than she had managed to with her child-like hands. She lay on her back looking up into his face and sputtering in shock, her hair drifting around her head like a halo.

"Why you!" she said, reaching up and giving him a good hard shove, knocking him onto his back and then forming a cage with her own arms, trapping him in the creek, "I am NOT a kid," she spat out at him before jumping up and climbing out of the creek and not looking back or offering a hand to help him up.

Cain watched her haughty escape-- her khaki trousers and dark blue t-shirt clinging to her soaked body-- with a bemused expression, not quite sure what'd he'd done to make her so angry.

It was tense at the campfire that night; it felt like even the air was angry with him. She hadn't spoken to him since the creek incident and it had now been quite some time since the suns set and since they'd both dried. He watched her making a daisy chain across from him at the fire and smiled a sad smile. He remembered how he used to make daisy chain crowns for Adora and tell her he was in love with a queen. She usually took them off and threw them at him, telling him to quit such childish nonsense and feed the chickens, but he'd seen the pressed daisies in her journal—not that he'd read her journal…or anything.

He was surprised when he looked up and realized that while he'd been lost in a memory, DG had moved to his side and was looking at him with the concerned expression that had become her trademark. He'd never met anyone as compassionate and empathetic as this girl looking up at him with questioning blue eyes.

"You look sad. I'm sorry I've behaved so childishly. I don't mean to bother you so much. I swear I'll do better," she said crossing her heart and looking at him earnestly, the shadow from the fire dancing across her face.

"Nah, Kid," he said, laughing at the fire he saw in her eyes when he said this and taking the daisies from her hand--placing them on her head, "You're a real queen, I like you just the way you are."

Cain woke up to the sound of DG singing, something about some Fiyero fellow, and followed it down to a deep part of Culprit Creek. He smiled at the name, which finally seemed to have some meaning. He found her at the bottom skipping stones.

She heard him coming so didn't bother to turn around when he walked up.

"You don't need to worry, I've already fed myself. I found some berries."

Cain smirked, deciding to tease her a bit. After all, everyone should know not to eat any old berry.

"Well, now that's a shame, Deej, because I was rather fond of you. I was just getting use to your impulsiveness. You should have asked me about them first, seeing as how you've been away from the O.Z. for a long time and every berry found in this region is poisonous."

"What?! Cain, no you have to be wrong, I..." she spun around to face him, a look of fear on her face, only to meet his smiling face and realize he'd been teasing.

"I what?" he questioned her.

"I'm going to KILL you, that's what. Why do you have to be so BLONDE?"

Cain looked at her, confused as to why she was bringing up his hair color and why she had been so touchy lately.

"I really don't think my hair color…" he said trailing off.

"You are possibly the stupidest man on the planet, Wyatt Cain," she said, storming up the hill and out of sight.

"DG!" he called after her, "You can't just wander off like this!"

He got up and started trudging up the hill, realizing for the first time how sore he was from the previous day's tumble down that same hill. It was when he heard DG frantically screaming his name that he ignored the pain and ran the rest of the way up the hill, as fast as he could.

"I hear you've been looking for me," said the cruel eyed man who was holding DG pressed up against his body, the cold blade of a knife pressed to her throat, with a small droplet of scarlet blood running down her pale skin, "Do you know, this feels oddly familiar-you watching in pain-helpless-, me with your pretty little thing. This one is much prettier than that last one, what was her name? Abhora? Not as pretty as her sister, though…" he trailed off, rubbing his face up and down DG's with his eyes closed, inhaling her scent. It made Cain cringe and his blood boil with anger to see her touched like that. It was worse than watching her laugh with Jeb, at least when she was with Jeb he knew she was safe.

"Let her go," Cain said, slowly taking a step towards the wide eyed woman being held captive in front of him, but stopping as Zero pushed the blade further into her fragile throat.

"Nah uh uh. Here's how it's going to be, Tinman. I'm going to let the pretty little princess go, and you're going to provide the means for a travel storm for me, and you're never going to come looking for me again. Otherwise, she'll have a real reason to lose all her precious little memories, and the kingdom will lose their newly returned ruler."

Cain was about to give in to the madman's demands when he saw DG shake her head ever so slightly. If she wasn't his princess, he would have never dreamed of obeying, but personal relationships aside, she was still his ruler and he has no choice but to submit.

"Not gonna happen, Zero. Here's what's really going to happen, you're going to either let go of the kid and come with us peaceably to be tried for your crimes, or…" he trailed off, meeting the determined look in DG's eye and swearing he heard her voice in his head whisper "allow me."

"Or what?" Zero smirked.

"Or this," DG replied, first focusing her magic on the knife in his hand and sending it flying like a dart into a tree ten feet behind Cain, and then focusing her magic on her stunned captor, throwing him into the large apple tree behind them. He slid to the ground dazed. Then all of the trees within throwing distance began pelting him with the shiny, red orbs. It took only a few good tosses at his head before Zero was knocked unconscious.

Wanting to be sure everything was safe, Cain suppressed his urge to make sure DG hadn't been seriously injured in the scuffle to check that Zero was safely oblivious to the world. He walked up to him and kicked him in the side--hard. When there was no movement, Cain retrieved some rope from his bag and tied Zero to the now still apple tree at his back and then spat in his face to appease some of his anger. The bastard deserved worse than what was coming. Azkadellia had been sufficiently gracious and/or a big ol' pushover since the witch had been removed from her body. She was trying to hard to make amends, if you asked him.

Making sure he was sufficiently calm, Cain turned back to DG who was sitting under the tree with the dagger in its trunk crying. He walked over to her and sat down, pulling her into his lap. She was surprised by his action, but she quickly relaxed in his embrace. He was holding her head to his chest and caressing her hair in an attempt to soothe her.

"Hey now, it wasn't all that bad. You whipped him."

"That's not why I'm upset."

"Then what's wrong?"

"I'm not a kid," she said turning her face up towards with a look he'd never noticed there before. It was a mix between determination, sadness, and pleading, and it took him aback. She shook her head and pushed herself up from his lap, wiping her tears away as she stood.

"I'm going to walk back to the last town and get help to bring him back. You stay and watch him," she said as she strode determinedly away, her head held high.

"DG, wait, I…" he followed after her, grabbing her arm and forcing her to turn around, with more force than he meant and accidentally pulling her closer than he intended. She was pressed up against him her hands sprawled across his chest from bracing herself. He could feel her breath on his neck and she could feel the warmth of his arms. Neither of them spoke for a moment; neither of them seemed to be able to.

"I what?" she whispered, staring at his chest.

"I know you're not a kid."

DG looked up into his eyes, letting her hope show for the first time and it took Cain's breath away. He didn't think he'd ever feel this way again.

They stared at each other, neither of them breathing.

"Wyatt Cain if you don't kiss me so help…"

She didn't have time to finish her sentence because his lips cut her off. It wasn't what she expected. The boys she'd kissed before had all seemed so…eager. Wyatt Cain was not like the other boys.

At first, the contact between their lips was timid, as if he was asking permission after her demand. His lips were soft and warm and inviting and she gratefully succumbed to their shelter. When he felt her reaction, he pulled her closer and DG became aware of every contact point between their two bodies and discovered she found it very pleasurable. She slowly wound her arms from his chest up around his neck and forced their lips closer together. She felt his hands move from her elbows; one sliding up her back and into her long, dark curls, mirroring her own actions, the other sliding down to her waist to press her body even closer to his own. She'd NEVER been kissed like this before and she sighed contentedly into his lips.

Cain thought he was going to die from an overload of stimuli from the beautiful woman in his arms. He didn't think he could get her close enough to him, and he definitely couldn't get enough of her beautiful, red lips that he was now very freely exploring. He tugged her hair and heard her moan—a sound he definitely wanted to make her repeat.

He'd never kissed a woman like this before, not that he'd kissed very many woman. There'd only been one woman before Adora, and he'd only been 15 then, so he didn't think it counted. With Adora, it had always been pleasurable and she'd been his best friend, but he didn't know before he'd met DG that he could feel THIS much desire for one tiny woman. If he never went to heaven, he wouldn't mind, as long as he could continue kissing her.

Cain realized when his hand felt contact with the flushed skin under her shirt and heard her breathy "Wyatt"-- which caused him to groan in frustration-- that the heated kiss should probably end.

When they finally broke apart, it was a slow, disoriented process for both of them. Neither of them wanted the moment to end. Cain placed a kiss on DG's forehead before leaning his against it. He watched her as her eyes closed and single tear ran down her face, which he kissed away.

"You two about done yet?" demanded a perturbed voice from behind them.

They both turned and looked at the man tied to the tree, DG still in Cain's arms.

"You know what, Zero? No, we are not," Cain said before dipping DG and giving her a sound kiss which made her laugh. She only laughed harder when the tree Zero was tied to realized its captive had awoken and knocked him out once again with another crisp apple aimed perfectly at the foolish man's head.


End file.
